One Too Many
by mapplepie
Summary: When time-travel has a fixed point and Kakashi is the only one who has copied the jutsu, things get a little confusing. Kakashi meets Kakashi meets Kakashi meets Kakashi meets Kakashi meets Kakashi. Thankfully there's a return jutsu, and Kakashi knows better than to meddle with time.


_a/n: the fic ended up surprisingly less crack than I anticipated, considering the premise._

 **One Too Many**

* * *

The day started out normal.

Minato was dressed in his custom flame embroidered Hokage robes, large formal hat tucked away in a scroll. He walked along the gravel path that led home to Konoha, smile on his face, despite the long, grueling day he had endured. Minato enjoyed his position as Hokage, but the terse diplomatic meetings with any of the other Kage were something he could do without. All exchanges were coated with thinly veiled threats, a silent power play Minato despised. The annual summit meeting honestly took longer than it needed to because of that.

"I can't wait to arrive home," Minato sighed out loud. "Sorry for dragging you along with me."

At those words, there was a flicker of movement as an Anbu detached himself from the shadows of the trees to appear by his Hokage's side. "Your safety is my concern, Hokage-sama," his voice stated from behind a Hound mask.

Minato nodded before raising an eyebrow. "What have I told you about calling me 'Hokage-sama'?" he asked pointedly.

"Not to if we're alone." The Anbu pushed up his ceramic mask, revealing the face of a silver-haired fourteen-year-old with mismatched eyes. "Minato-sensei," he corrected.

"Good."

The Anbu frowned. "I still think you should have had more guards with you than just myself."

"So you've said," Minato said pleasantly, "But I trust you to keep me safe, Kakashi." The blond gave the teen a wryly grin. "I'm trying to be peaceful here – I didn't need them to think I was trying to present myself as a threat. Between our reputations, we're dangerous enough."

Kakashi snorted.

Minato's grin widened. "Anyways, I don't expect anything to happen," he said with a gesturing hand, "We're almost home as it is."

And that was when he was proven wrong. Suddenly, the day that had started out so normal quickly spiraled out of control. Honestly, it was Kakashi's fault; really, it was – anyone with eyes could tell that. Thankfully Minato was a better person than to point fingers, even if it was so blatantly obvious.

There was rustling in the bushes a few meters away from the Konoha-nin. Kakashi immediately snapped his Anbu mask back into place, stepping between the possible threat and his Hokage. Behind him, Minato slipped into a ready stance as well.

A tall figure in a long black hooded cloak stumbled out, legs wobbling as he appeared to struggle to regain balance. His cloak looked much too alike to Konoha's standard outerwear for Anbu squads to be anything but suspicious. Kakashi shifted to get a better glance at the man, only to have the figure abruptly snap towards the two of them at his movement.

Graced by the unhindered sight, Kakashi growled under his breath. On the other man's face was a mask, ceramic like his own, with a pattern that was more than familiar.

"I don't take kindly to those impersonating my Anbu," Minato began, much too calmly.

The man jolted at his voice, masked face swivelling over to the blond before he stilled. There was a long pause until a hand slowly pulled out from the folds of his cloak to fingered the Hound mask he was wearing, low curse on his lips. "I didn't mean to…" the man muttered to no one in particular.

Kakashi found himself annoyed. "Remove the mask," the Anbu demanded.

He didn't. "I'd prefer not to while you're in that mood," the man said guardedly.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed behind his own Anbu mask. "You don't know what mood I'm in," he said as coolly as ever.

"No, I'm sure I do."

"Well _I'm_ not in a happy mood," Minato cut in, because those two would be at a stand-still forever until fists were exchanged, and as Hokage, he really did prefer a more diplomatic approach, "especially with you trying to impersonate my Anbu," he said pointedly.

There was a second of silence as the man seemed to burn Minato's image into his mind, before he slowly lifted his hand, projecting his intent as he did so. He pointed into the trees behind him. "He can explain."

There was a sudden burst of chakra and another man shot out. "We don't want trouble!" the man said promptly, sliding into a halt. Immediately Minato and Kakashi's weapons pointed at his direction. If the first man annoyed Kakashi, this new one was taking impersonation onto a whole new level.

The new man was dressed in a similar version of Konoha's standard green flak jacket, navy blue mask covering his lower face. A Konoha headband was pulled to a tilt, conveniently covering his left eye. On his head was a mob of silver hair. He looked like Kakashi, though aged decades older than he should've been. He honestly looked even older than Minato – in his thirties, if Minato were to guess.

"You better have a good explanation, then," Minato said under his darkening expression.

The older Kakashi-impersonator looked around before he gave an apologetic, "Aaa, do you mind waiting for one more?"

"So you can outnumber us?" Kakashi muttered harshly.

The Kakashi-impersonator let out an awkward chuckle, and the Anbu-impersonator didn't move, but Minato was sure he rolled his eyes. The man held up his hands, "I promise we mean no harm."

"What makes you think I won't just take you both down before your ally reaches you?" Kakashi said, sounding all the world casual, but the tightly clench hands he held onto his weapons told a different story.

Yet, the impersonator looked unfazed. "You won't."

"Try me."

"You won't."

Minato arched an eyebrow at their bickering. "And how are you so certain of that?" he asked curiously, eyeing the calm posture the man hadn't eased out of yet, regardless of how riled and tense and ready to pounce Kakashi looked.

The man smiled at him under the navy mask in a much too startlingly familiar grin. Behind him was the sound of rustling that was starting to become much too common. "Because I don't remember doing that when I was him," he replied airily, "nor all the other times I was here."

As if on cue, yet another silver-haired head emerged from the forest, bearing all the characteristics of Kakashi as well, mask, silver-hair, green shinobi flak jacket, but on par with Minato's age in the mid-twenties.

The oldest Kakashi held up a hand to the newcomer, slowly telegraphing his movement for the twitchy original. "Yo," he greeted.

"Yo," the other replied.

Minato swore he was seeing – and hearing – double.

This new Kakashi easily ignored the rest of the group, as the oldest turned to him and spoke, "I presume you've taken care of the problem?"

"Of course," he answered, thumb jerking over his shoulder into the depths of the forest.

Minato glanced over them and spied yet _another_ Kakashi, youngest of the lot if he excluded _his_ original, bound and gagged in the bushes. He stilled at the sight, because imposters or not, he didn't like the image of his precious student tied up like that.

The newcomer stepped towards the one he subdued, gently patting the teen's cheeks even as the teen glared up at him while shooting Minato watery gazes. "You won't get out no matter how hard you struggle. You never have," he said, and Minato wondered if that was supposed sound comforting. "It's for your own good. You're going to lay here and listen to our conversation, and when you return home, you'll think this over and realise it was foolish to consider saying anything to disrupt the timeline."

The younger Kakashi wiggled beneath him, mouth biting out inaudible words underneath his gag.

"Now now, don't say anything you'll regret," the thirty-something Kakashi called over, a little too cheerfully.

They all turned back to Minato and the original after that. Minato stared at them in contemplation, while Kakashi bristled silently by his side. "It should be apparent by now, but: hello, I'm Hatake Kakashi, and so are the others," the older man introduced, finally.

Minato's first suspicion had been 'cloning', but instinctively he'd known that wasn't the truth. Their conversation with each other only confirmed it. However, the thought of time-travel was not any less insane.

"You're all Kakashi," Minato repeated carefully.

"Yup."

Minato deliberated, before gesturing with his head, "The one up on the tree as well?"

The original Kakashi's head snapped upwards. Up, hidden behind the foliage and umbra, standing stock-still and silent, was a final Kakashi. While he didn't have an Anbu mask present, he was dressed in black instead of the standard flak jacket, and he also had the air of someone working in the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad.

"Don't mind me," the Kakashi called down to him. He sounded younger than the rest of the unexpected Kakashis, expect, perhaps the one tied and gagged.

"Let him watch," the Anbu-attired time-traveler told him curtly.

The oldest reached into his shinobi pack, digging out a roll of bandages. He tossed it at Anbu Kakashi with a nod. "Fix up while we chat with sensei," he said, and to Minato's surprise there was blood on his hand when he pulled it out from under his black cloak.

"What happened?" Minato demanded, more out of instinct than anything, because older or not, this was his student.

The bloodied man shrug, busy with his hands. "Mission," he said plainly.

Minato's lips pressed into a taut line, but he didn't press harder. There were some things he shouldn't know despite how much he wanted to. He hadn't meant to ask in the first place.

Besides him, Kakashi still looked wide eyed and incredulous, unable to wrap his head around the world-altering situation. Minato didn't blame the teen, since he was only barely getting by himself. In a gesture of comfort, he reached over to ruffle Kakashi's hair.

The kid scowled at him, turning away, embarrassed when Minato only grinned, light and decidedly amused.

Yet when he faced the other Kakashis, grin still in place, _another_ Kakashi jerked his head away from the sight of him as well, to Minato's confusion – confusion because this wasn't the self-conscious motion his Kakashi had performed, but rather one of heartbreak and pain. The expression dropped off the blond's face, watching him worriedly. He was the Kakashi who had been in the tree; though now, he was on the ground, back pressed to the tree trunk, fingers clenched pale into the fabric of his pants.

"I can't-" Kakashi started, cutting off into nothing.

The twenty-so-year Kakashi's eyes soften. "I know," he said, despite the unfinished sentence, and Minato supposed he did. They all did, barring the ones from a timeline before his own. The time-traveler laid a hand on his younger-self's shoulder in a motion of comfort. "If it gets too much…" he reached into his jacket, pulling out an eye-blindingly orange novel from within, "why don't you read to distract yourself?"

The younger Kakashi stared dubiously at it, as did the original fourteen-year-old. "What's it about?"

"Maa, you'll see."

The oldest suddenly let out a giggle, and Minato froze at the oddness of it all. Kakashi – the Kakashi he knew – hardly laughed, let alone burst into fits of _giggles._ And there was something so disconcerting looking at a thirty-year-old rosy with perversion.

"I refuse to believe it!" the original Kakashi finally snapped. He'd been keeping silent for a long time, watching the unbelievable phenomenon unfold before his eye without comment, but there was only so much he could endure. "How are you all me? Why would I-"

The older man sighed as the rant continued, then glanced at Minato before biting his thumb. Minato made no moves to stop him because he recognised that sequence of handseals. With a puff, familiar ninken appeared.

Even Kakashi paused mid-tirade because he knew his dogs, their chakra, their appearance, their smell, because he'd raised them since they were pups; because _he_ was their summoner.

The older Kakashi pointed at the original, ignoring his frozen form. "Dogpile," he ordered.

The dogs complied.

"Huh," Minato murmured thoughtfully, as Kakashi let out an involuntary squeak as the dogs pounced on him. Kakashi's lack of retaliation was telling, since he would never hurt his precious ninken, and he'd certainly recognised them as such. "I wasn't aware they knew that command."

His eye creased into a smile. "Works wonders on my students."

"Should I know that?"

"I'm Jounin," he replied with an idle shrug. "Can't manage to fail them all."

"Not for lack of trying," the other Kakashi in the flak jacket was quick to follow up.

 _His_ Kakashi was buried under fur and dog drool, distracted by his ninken's cooing - because mini-Boss was just too grumpy and cute, apparently. Minato let them be. It'd been ages since Kakashi looked so childish, and Minato was the last person who would ruin the moment for him.

He turned to the oldest Kakashi, since he most likely had the most experience in this odd time-traveling adventure. The others seemed satisfied idling around, observing and listening to them speak. There was something murky and sombre in all their expressions that had Minato trying his damnest not to dwell too much on it, lest he start assuming things better left untouched.

"Why are you all here?" Minato asked, "Why this time? How?"

There was a sheepish grin on Kakashi's face. "Maa, it wasn't intentional. I never expected the jutsu to actually work. And it turned out the time and location is set after first use, and I-" he jerked a thumb over at the gagged doppelganger, "didn't know and chose thoughtlessly."

A frown marred Minato's face, because though there was a constriction, that still didn't stop other shinobi from randomly appearing all throughout the decades.

Kakashi noticed and added casually, "I killed the shinobi who had it in his possession, and burnt the scroll after I copied it."

"I see," the blond said calmly, because murder was nothing to shinobi.

There was nothing else to say to that, so the older Kakashi picked up the conversation with a, "I'm surprised you have no questions about the future."

"Would you have answered?"

"Aaa, I suppose not."

"I know better than to meddle with time," Minato said. It wasn't that he wasn't curious, but there were too many unaccountable consequences that were holding him back. He didn't want to accidently destroy entire nations in an attempt to fix wrongs, because who knew how the paradox of diverging timelines would affect the stability of the world?

"It took me longer than you to remember that."

Minato shot a glance at the gagged Kakashi, who'd stilled during their long conversation, looking contrite and contemplative now. "But I see you know to keep yourself in check."

Kakashi chuckled.

Minato smiled fondly at him before he glanced over at the other four additional Kakashis. "I'm sure you all had your reasons for returning to the past," he said, soft and nonjudgmental, because these were still Kakashi, and Kakashi may have his weaknesses but he learns to strive through them. "If only just to make sure the scene you saw in your past stayed the same."

"Our reasons…" Kakashi murmured, "It wasn't always from selfish desire. Maybe once." The oldest Kakashi cast his gaze to his younger counterparts. "And also once when it was the first jutsu that came to mind," he added, while the injured Kakashi grimaced at his words.

"And how about you? What was your reason?"

Kakashi stared up into the blue sky, looking older than his assumed thirty-so years. "I needed some normality."

"Time-travelling is your sense of normality?" Minato said dubiously, and Kakashi let out a harsh bark of laughter.

"You have no idea," he replied, dark eyes echoing a war-torn future Minato dreaded to imagine.

Even so, it was probably best not to try to imagine it in the first place. "I came back because I'm the one who finds the reverse jutsu to bring us back to our original timeline," the twenty-so-year-old Kakashi volunteered suddenly, and it was an appreciated distraction to stop his wandering mind.

Minato gave him a grateful smile before he paused and tried to wrap his head around the impossibility that came with time-traveling. Because there was something wrong about that statement. "But don't you all know the jutsu already after your first trip?" he reasoned hesitantly.

"Yes, but one of us had to have found it in the first place to bring back for the first Kakashi to use," the time-traveler countered logically.

"But what research has to be done if you already know it?"

"I only went through the act of searching," Kakashi admitted cheekily, but that information only made Minato's head spin more.

There was a perpetual loop with no noticeable ends – because future Kakashi gained the knowledge of the returning jutsu by witnessing it in his past, but the past Kakashi who had witnessed it had learnt the jutsu from that same Kakashi of the future.

Minato scrubbed a hand over his face before running it though his hair in exasperation.

"Don't think too hard on it," one of the Kakashis consoled.

The twenty-year-old turned away from the blond and the group, interjecting, "That aside, it's about time I showed you the jutsu."

The formerly gagged Kakashi was already untied by now, sitting obediently and quietly under the tree as he awaited his lesson. His eyes lowered when Minato looked over, embarrassed and shameful.

There was a pause.

"Ah, give me one second." The designated teacher turned suddenly and walked over to pluck his orange novel from between the fingers of the younger Kakashi he had loaned it to.

"Hey, I wasn't finished-"

"Buy your own copy," he said bluntly, and the older Kakashis all seemed to pat their pockets in the same movement, where a faint outline of a similar shaped book was seen. Minato wondered offhandedly if he should be worried.

Meanwhile, the designated teacher returned to his former spot, fingers placed in handseals once more. "Watch carefully now," he said, while the youngest of the time-traveling team hastily opened his left eye, sharingan swirling in anticipation.

His fingers raced though some complicated seals. Then, with a poof, much like the disperse of a bunshin, except everyone present knew better, the twenty-year-old Kakashi disappeared from sight. The others quickly followed suit, after overseeing the youngest and a solemn nod to the _Yondaime_ , leaving behind only the oldest and the original.

Minato hastily held a hand to Kakashi's arm. "I'm glad I got to know you live a long life," he told him, honest and relieved, because thirty was already well past a shinobi's life expectancy, especially for one as fervid as Kakashi.

"A lot happens," Kakashi said lowly, wistfully.

"I can tell," he replied, because the attitude of every Kakashi told a different story. "Even though I don't know what happens in the future, and I _shouldn't_ know, you've already given me a lot to think about."

Kakashi turned towards him.

Suddenly there was an amused twinkle in his eyes, lips stretching from Minato's words. "Aaaa, have I, now?" he murmured, just shy of mischievous. "But, if I really wanted to give you something to think about, I would've shown you this," he said conspiringly, patting his covered left eye.

Minato hesitated, because he knew what was underneath; it was Obito's sharingan… _wasn't it_?

But the older man didn't elaborate, only glancing over at where little Kakashi was breathless, still smothered under eight different dogs. There was another grin as he dispelled his summons, finally freeing the teen from where the ninken had hidden him under.

Then with what Minato debated between a wink or a blink, he raised his hand to the appropriate handseals and left with a swirl of chakra.

Alone once more, the forest was hushed, except for wildlife and the trembling of leaves. "Well… I think I quite liked them," Minato commented, lips pulled to a weary grin, as Kakashi scrambled back to his proper place beside his Hokage.

"They're me," the fourteen-year-old interjected. His hair was wet with slobber and out of place, clothes covered with dirt and dog hair, nothing like the professional image he was that morning.

Minato let out a long, loud laugh. "Exactly," he said fondly, blue eyes sparkling under the sunlight, "I think that's precisely why."

* * *

 _a/n: Do you know what else is 'one too many'? The amount of Naruto time-travels/hinted time-travels I have written. By my last count, it's reached double-digits already..._

 _When I wrote my first one, I never though I would get so enamored by the trope. But it's so much fun to imagine and write, and you guys enjoy it too, so win-win all around. (maybe not so win for you guys that most are one-shots, haha)_


End file.
